Delhi will witness a triangular fight among Congress, BJP and AAP when it votes to choose a new legislative assembly on 8 February. The Congress, which ruled the city for 15 years till 2013 but drew a blank in the 2015 polls, is also looking to come to power. While the BJP is struggling to make a comeback to the helm of Delhi assembly after 22 years, the AAP has a clear edge over both BJP and Congress. Ask a man on the street or people living in posh localities who they would vote for in the coming Delhi elections and their prompt reply would be Arvind Kejriwal. It appears a wave is building up for Kejriwal and his party. These are the same Delhiwalas who had voted for Narendra Modi in 2014 and 2019. BJP had won all seven seats in the Lok Sabha election in Delhi, but Kejriwal’s rating is much higher in Delhi. Most people in Delhi seem to be inclined towards returning the seven-year-old AAP to power in the state mostly for one reason: Kaam Kiya Hai. There are five things almost everyone is listing as a model of governance which have improved their lives: bijli, pani, health, education and free bus rides for women and CCTV cameras in their colonies. BJP plans to make a bid to get back support of bastis (shanties) with the promise of regularizing unauthorized colonies. According to political observers, there are possibilities of the Congress causing deep dents in the AAP’s voter base in the constituencies with significant Muslim population in the light of the protests against the recently amended citizenship law. This time, Delhi voters are openly and loudly talking about education, health, water and electricity.
JD(U) EXPELLING PRASHANT KISHOR, PAVAN VARMA BETRAYS CRACKS
Ever since the Jharkhand election, JD(U) has been showing cracks within the party on the issue of CAA and NRC. The infighting among the leaders has come out openly to pressure BJP for giving up more seats in the coming assembly election in Bihar. In the beginning, both Pavan Varma and Prashant Kishor made a hue and cry on the issue of their party supporting the CAA and NRC. Later, JD(U) MP Pavan Varma wrote a public letter to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar questioning his decision to contest the Delhi polls with BJP, resulting in Nitish Kumar telling Varma off. After that, the former Vice President of JD(U) and political strategist, Prashant Kishor targeted Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Modi and blamed him for “giving character certificates” to people. Kishor alleged that earlier, Sushil Modi would criticize Nitish Kumar on camera, but ever since that he was made the Deputy Chief Minister, he has been dishing out written certificates to the ruling leaders of Bihar. Kishor also blamed Modi for criticizing Nitish Kumar in 2014 for the latter’s “betraying the mandate of people by breaking the alliance with BJP” and also blamed Nitish for betraying George Fernandes, Lalu Yadav, Jitan Ram Manjhi, among others. Kishor underlined the hypocrisy behind Sushil Modi praising Nitish Kumar for supporting the BJP agenda. As a result, JD(U) on Wednesday, January 29, expelled Prashant Kishor and Pavan Varma for their “anti-party activities”.
WHO WILL BE THE NEXT DIRECTOR GENERAL OF UP POLICE?
At the time of last assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, a backward caste leader, was the BJP state president. But after the election, once Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister, differences between them have been running deep. Now, however, those hidden differences have come out in the surface on the issue of administration, as the Director General of Police is retiring on 31 January and Yogi wants to give him a three-month extension. However DG, UP Police OP Singh does not want to continue. Hence, the Yogi government has sent a panel of seven names to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), in which two belong to the 1988 batch and three are from the 1987 batch. Now, a senior IPS officer, Jawahar Lal Tripathi who is from the 1986 batch, has moved the petition to the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, flagging the fact that he was not included in the list of the IPS officers sent to the UPSC and that he would want to become the next DG as he is the senior most. It is rumoured that CM Yogi wants DS Chauhan to become the next DG of UP Police, something that is ostensibly not supported by Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.
FOR CONGRATULATING NADDA, RAWAT LANDS IN SOUP
Soon after JP Nadda became the National President of the BJP, the infighting in the Congress in Uttarakhand started. Whereas Harish Rawat congratulated Nadda for becoming the party president, the Congress leaders of Uttarakhand opposed to Rawat approached the high command and state leadership blaming Harish Rawat for this act of sending congratulations. They even claimed that Harish Rawat might now join the BJP. On the other hand, Harish Rawat told the press that when JP Nadda was the Health Minister in the Centre, the AIIMS in Rishikesh was allocated the required budget without much fuss. Rawat said that Nadda was a simple and decent man and even former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Digvijay Singh had sent Nadda is greetings. However, Uttarakhand Congress leaders don’t seem to be satisfied by Rawat’s explanation.
CONGRESS LAGGING BEHIND IN DELHI CAMPAIGN, AAP RACING AHEAD
While the ruling AAP in Delhi has deployed top leaders, including MPs and ministers, for canvassing for the February 8 Delhi polls, the Congress is yet to see its big guns like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, hit the campaign trail. With just few days left for campaigning to end for the assembly polls, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal along with AAP supporters, have been holding roadshows every day, while his ministers are addressing gatherings in Delhi’s 70 assembly constituencies in a bid to retain power. On the other hand, with an aim to recapture power, the top leadership of the BJP — Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J P Nadda — have been holding daily roadshows and public meetings. It has also deployed Union Ministers, chief ministers, party MPs and volunteers to spruce up the campaign, which have already landed some of the leaders on the wrong side of the Election Commission for violating model code of conduct. Top Congress leaders, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, have been lagging behind and would start poll campaigning only from February 2 till February 6, the last day of campaigning. (IPA)
BJP’s Dirty Insinuation Against Shaheen Bagh Protestors 